Police Brutality Charges

9:19 am

Fri January 21, 2011

Grainy surveillance video captures the moment a King County Sheriff's deputy, working with Metro Transit police, knocks Christopher Harris against an outside wall of the Cinerama Theater in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood in May 2009.

A jury trial has begun in Tacoma, detailing another case of alleged police brutality in Seattle.

The lawsuit was filed against King County by the wife and a court-appointed guardian of 31-year-old Christopher Sean Harris, who a deputy shoved against a concrete wall a year and a half ago outside the Cinerama movie theater in Belltown. A surveillance camera outside the movie theater captured footage of the incident.

Sports with Art Thiel

4:48 am

Fri January 21, 2011

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck talks to head coach Pete Carroll on the sideline during an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010, in Seattle. Will coach and player be on the same sideline next season?

There's no rest for the weary at Seattle Seahawks headquarters. Less than a week after the end of the season, head coach Pete Carroll fired offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates and hired Darrell Bevell from the Minnesota Vikings to replace him.

Carroll also has hired the newly-fired head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Tom Cable, to be his assistant head coach and the man in charge of the Hawks' offensive line. How does all of this impact the effort to re-sign quarterback Matt Hasselbeck?

Medicine

4:07 pm

Thu January 20, 2011

King County's major medical centers continue jockeying for position in the emerging new health-care world.

U.W. Medicine and Valley Medical Center proposed this week what they call a "strategic alliance." Valley wants to retain its name, although the news release says Valley would become "part of U.W. Medicine."

Earlier this year, U.W. Medicine took over running Northwest Hospital (in north Seattle), without actually owning the hospital.

diversion from jails and hospitals

7:34 am

Thu January 20, 2011

A diversion program intended to keep drug abusers and troubled mentally ill people out of hospitals and jails has run into opposition. Neighbors of a proposed new facility in Seattle don’t want it. They say the "Jackson Park" area between Rainier Valley and the Central District already has enough challenges and has become a dumping ground.

We’re still dealing with landslides and flooding from the heavy rains brought by last week’s Pineapple Express storms. But the downpour also washed a flood of gunk and junk off of the region’s streets, sidewalks and parking lots, into more than 4,500 storm drains and right into Puget Sound.

Storm drains usually empty underwater, so nobody sees the flood of crud that pours into rivers and bays across the region.